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Friday, July 5, 2013

Best of the Week #108

Dear readers:

I apologize for my absence over the last couple weeks.My hope is that you haven’t given up on me,
but I can’t say I blame you if you have.In my defense, I was in beautiful Colorado last week, where I, among
other things, backpacked, biked, hiked, and tore up the dance floor at my
friend’s wedding!By the way, I think Get Lucky just barely
beats Blurred Lines for
the Song of Summer title, but neither holds a candle to the timeless Call Me Maybe.Agree?Disagree?

Either way, let’s start this week’s Best of the Week with a moment
of silence for the Wendy’s T-Rex Burger.

It's so tall, I got two patties in my mouth
and one of the top patties hit me in the eye. I like a burger that requires
protective eyewear.

In the words of Emeril Lagasse: Oh yeah, babe!

Also on the subject of taking one’s life into one’s hands
(see what I did there?), this
short video is incredible.

What Cezanne did for apples, Rob Whitworth
does for city traffic.

I, for one, enjoy chaos of all shapes and sizes, especially
roundabout-induced chaos.But
roundabouts in DC are just dangerous:It’s
the only place in DC where I’ve been hit on my bike.The Logan Circle of Death!

He takes on those who would demand that the
public schools teach alternative theories of evolution and the origins of the
earth — most famously, in a video clip from the site BigThink.com that has been viewed
some five million times. In it, he flatly tells adult viewers that “if you want
to deny evolution and live in your world — in your world that’s completely
inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe — that’s fine. But
don’t make your kids do it, because we need them. We need scientifically
literate voters and taxpayers for the future."

3-D printers!These
things are on the brink of revolutionizing
industry, and it makes me very happy to see that folks are already using
them for good.

I'll take a 3-D printed hand over a 3-D printed gun any day of the week!

NASA!I may or may
not have shed a tear when NASA retired the shuttle program, but NASA’s not
resting on its laurels.Instead, they’re
doing things like this.

In 2006, Cassini managed to do this in a
mosaic that is routinely cited as the most popular picture ever taken by the
satellite. It shows Saturn as a translucent orb surrounded by its rings, with
Earth - a speck so small you could almost miss it - sitting in the upper-left
of the frame. It is visible just inside the planet's faint G-ring.

Dr Porco believes her Ciclops team can improve on the 2006 picture,
especially if they use their high resolution camera to picture Earth during the
19 July opportunity.

If you look closely, you can see The Donald's hair!

Let’s hear it for science!Hooray science!

Also awesome, though not necessarily related to science,
IKEA (yes the Swedish firm implicated in the horsemeat meatballs scandal
(apparently they also make furniture)) has partnered with UNHCR (UN High
Commissioner for Refugees) in an attempt to improve shelters at refugee
camps.

Packaged
inside iconic Ikea flat-packs come all the parts needed to put together a
refugee housing unit, the result of more than two years of research by the ,
the Swedish retailer's philanthropic arm, in partnership with, part of the
U.N. refugee agency. Panels of lightweight plastic snap onto a metal frame held
together by wires.

In,
Johan Karlsson, who oversaw the project, notes that the lightweight plastic is
durable — lasting up to three years, compared with about six months for the
canvas tent that has been the standard at refugee camps for decades. And unlike
canvas, it also has insulating properties and provides privacy.

Bravo, IKEA and UNHCR!

In case you needed another reason to go to the zoo, this
guy arrived a couple weeks ago.He’s
no red
panda, but he’s pretty damn cute!

Look at that face!

Babies cry.And they smell.And they’re kind of funny looking.But watching them fumble their way through
their first everything is magical, and, without question, your BEST OF THE
WEEK!

This is what I look like every time it snows. And I'm from Upstate NY. Snow never gets old!